Nnohe Henip: Black Maw
by The Noble French Fry
Summary: This is another story of Nnohe Henip, that infamous and fearless Jedi that works alone to destroy crime groups that plague her Republic. She is infiltrating a crime group called Black Maw... [4 yrs preAOTC]
1. Black Maw: Getting IN

**_This is another story about Nnohe Henip and her adventures, a longer, more detailed one showing how she infiltrates a crime organization called Black Maw, and how she works to destroy it._

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_Disclaimer: As always, I do not own Star Wars, but I do own Nnohe Henip, Ardol, etc._

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**Black Maw**

ORD MANTELL was a world filled with the galaxy's scum and pleasure seekers of all sorts. It was positioned in the Mid-Rim, bordering the Unknown Regions, making it far enough away from any real Republic police forces to be considered "safe" for criminals.

And Ord Mantell was certainly crawling with criminals.

And bounty hunters, smugglers, illegal "information" dealers, excessive gamblers and just plain scum.

Numerous cantinas and casinos dotted the sea towns and they attracted thousands of customers. One of these such establishments was the "Savrip Cantina and Casino", nestled in one of the planets largest cities, Tyvyrp.

Inside, most beings sipped their drinks while meeting with business partners, listening to the jizz band or gambling at one of the few sabacc tables or the jubilee wheel that made the cantina a casino.

One such being was Nnohe Henip—or as her Duro companion thought, Hesje Dyjyrn.

"Sources tell me you're good, Dyjyrn," the Duro sitting across the table said. "Black Maw's very interested."

Nnohe lifted her glass to her lips and sipped the bitter liquor. She refrained from making a face. She hated Swyrlan whiskey—it was much too strong—but if she were really the assassin Hesje Dyjyrn that she claimed to be, she'd have no reason to decline the Duro's offer.

She was holding the effects of the liquor at bay with the Force, but she still felt a little slow.

Nnohe set down her cup and grinned. "Well, Ardol, what'd you expect?"

She'd been planting that information for over a month and the roll of Republic credits the Senate had given her had taken several large hits.

And even on Black Maw's payroll, she wasn't going to fix that problem any time soon.

"Well," the Duro admitted, "I actually expected a lot less."

Nnohe cocked an eyebrow and he shrunk back into his chair.

_Not after a month's work! _she thought.

"So," she said, "Black Maw has accepted me?"

Black Maw was the criminal organization that Nnohe had been order by the Senate and Jedi Council to infiltrate and destroy. This was her second attempt in two weeks to do so, pretending to be an assassin who wanted to serve Black Maw permanently.

Once inside Black Maw, she'd plant seeds of deception and distrust, and then idly watch the organization rip itself apart.

"Well, it's not _official_," Ardol said. "There's still a few tests and you've got to be approved by a few more people, but your chances are very good."

And by the look on his face, Nnohe guessed that she was practically part of the organization already.

_Finally_, thought Nnohe. _It took me long enough!_

She grinned and said aloud, "Good."

She took another sip of her whiskey.

A hideous Gamorrean brushed past Nnohe and for a moment, she envied Ardol's nose-less Duro face.

Using the Force, she cut off her sense of smell, but finding it too hard to do that and hold back the liquor's effects, she just tried to breathe through her mouth.

It made her throat burn slightly from the whiskey.

Ardol glanced at one of the sabacc tables, then at Nnohe's glass. "How about a refill, then we'll _test_ just how good you are at sabacc?"

Nnohe's sabacc game was a little rusty—she hadn't played in a couple of years—but with the Force, she was an expert.

Because she was a Jedi, she could easily read the other players' minds and tell if they had good hands or not. She could also influence some of the others to fold or exchange a card when she needed them to.

She'd won _almost_ every hand.

Some times she just allowed Ardol to win, just so she looked legitimate, even though she wasn't. And even her abilities failed sometimes, more often now because of the whiskey.

Of the five players besides Nnohe and Ardol, none remained.

Nnohe's credits roll had at least tripled.

Now in the last round of betting, Ardol pushed all of his remaining chips in with a slight grin. Nnohe matched the bet easily.

The Duro grinned and turned over his cards: The Mistress and Ten of Flasks. "Pure Sabacc!" he exclaimed, reaching for the credits in both pots. "You lose, Dyjyrn!"

Nnohe's hand shot out and grabbed his wrist.

The Duro looked absolutely stunned.

She smirked and turned over her own cards with her other hand: The Idiot, the Two of Coins and the Three of Sabres.

Her smirk broadened. "Idiot's Array," she said.

Ardol wrenched his hand out of her grasp and stood up swearing viciously. He'd lost at least two thousand credits.

Nnohe coolly collected the chips and added them to her pile. She had all of the chips! She could repay at least half of the Senate's credits.

Ardol bent down and shoved his face close to Nnohe's. "You cheated!"

Smelling the whiskey in his breath, she again envied his nose-less face.

She coolly cocked an eyebrow. "You," she said calmly, "had better tame your mouth. It's about to bring you a lot more trouble than you can deal with."

He looked down to find the muzzle of a blaster pressed to his chest and Nnohe's finger twitching on the trigger. His face changed immediately.

Nnohe didn't plan on shooting him, she knew that he would back down before taking a bolt through his chest.

Ardol backed up, hands raised. "I—I don't want any trouble," he stammered, gulping.

Nnohe holstered the blaster. "Then don't ask for it."

She collected the rest of the chips, scooped them all up and drained the rest of her whiskey from the cup. "You'll be in touch?" she asked the recomposed Duro.

At his nod, she marched to the bar, cashed in her chips and left.

Moments after she left, Ardol's personal comm sounded. He answered, "Ardol here."

"So, is she suitable?" the voice on the other end asked.

"Yes, boss," Ardol answered, staring at the door through which that assassin had just left. "Feisty, quick and strong." He rubbed his wrist.

Mentally, he added, _And one heck of a sabacc player._

"Good, relay that she's in."

"Alright, boss. Ardol out."

He switched off the comm, then opened his datapad and began typing a message.

Just as Nnohe collapsed on her rented hotel room's bed, her datapad chimed.

She groaned.

She was exhausted from holding back the liquor's effects and influencing everyone during the sabacc game. She let loose the effects of three cups of very strong Swyrlan whiskey and almost immediately doubled over, holding her stomach.

It hurt worse than nearly anything Nnohe had felt before.

And then the ringing in her head kicked in.

She curbed the nausea as best she could in her exhausted state, but she wasn't strong enough to hold back the headache too.

After a moment, the pain in both her stomach and head subsided enough that she answered her datapad.

It said "MESSAGE WAITING" and Nnohe pressed "READ".

The message sprung up immediately.

"Dear Hesje Dyjyrn,

"We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into Black Maw…"

There was a lot more, but that was all that Nnohe read. That was all she needed to know for now: She was in.


	2. The Calling Kurtzen

**_This isn't the greatest chapter, but it is pretty good. SPOILER ALERT! The next chapter opens with Nnohe in her starfighter, out kicking butt. So those of you who are fans of the X-wing series will like the next chapter very much!_

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**The Calling Kurtzen**

Wind whistled through the squat trees, lifting branches high and rustling them together like a llrktv bird's wings. The trees' huge leaves made a musical, melodious whirring as they touched and brushed; a unique sound even across the entire galaxy.

Turning in a slow circle and staring at the cerulean sky, Nnohe Henip tried to place the world in her mind.

Unique musical trees in spotted forests, deep indigo sky, whispering winds that seemed to speak…

Uumbian, Vyy System, Kwoq Cluster, Expansion Region. Yes, that was it.

She'd visited the truly unique world once, long, long ago. Beautiful, rich, pro-Republic: it was a truly model world.

But how did she get there? Hadn't she just been on Nar Shaddaa at the Black Maw criminal organization base?

A voice interrupted her thoughts. "Master Henip?"

Nnohe whirled. She'd not gone by her real name for many months, and only thirteen people in the entire galaxy knew the Black Maw operative known as Hesje Dyjyrn was in fact galaxy-renowned Jedi Knight Nnohe Henip.

Standing there was a young Kurtzen, probably fifteen years old, quivering as if he were cold. His aqua skin was far paler than it should have been, indicating that he was either terribly frightened, or ill.

Nnohe did not straighten from her defensive crouch. "If you call me by that name, you will give me yours and your reason."

He didn't answer immediately, but waited for about twenty seconds. And then when he opened his mouth to speak, a loud alarm blared from somewhere. The Kurtzen either didn't notice the sound, or just completely ignored it, and so he spoke despite the wailing alarm.

"Help me!" he whispered, mostly drowned out by the noise. "You're the only one who can."

And abruptly, he and everything around him faded away.

Nnohe came fully awake and sat up quickly, reflexively drawing her lightsaber out into a defensive position.

She realized as sleep disappeared that she was lying on a soft, familiar bed in a roomy suite that was equally familiar.

It was her Black Maw-granted Nar Shaddaa suite!

And the wailing alarm was Black Maw's intercom/alert system.

"Attention: prepare for fleet departure within the hour," a flat voice echoed through the speakers placed in every one of Black Maw's base's rooms. "Raid commencing on Uumbian, Vyy System. Repeat: all pilots and deckhands, prepare for departure!"

Nnohe moaned as she threw her legs over the bedside. That included her: she'd signed on to Black Maw as an assassin, but instead of taking assassin's jobs, she'd mostly just done pilot and raider work. Still, she'd managed to work her way up to being a squadron commander.

Standing, Nnohe groaned again. Black Maw's leaders had a bad habit of calling raids in the worst times: according to her chronometer, it was just past three in the morning.

Still, she dressed and prepared to leave within ten minutes. She threw cold water in her face, pulled back her dyed hair, and slid into her cobalt blue flightsuit, with her lightsaber carefully hidden inside of it. Grabbing a bag, Nnohe threw in some necessities and grabbed her helmet.

The wake-up message continued to repeat itself every two minutes as Nnohe hurried down the winding corridors to the launch bay.

Just as she stepped into the launch bay, there was a different message however. First, there was a wrestling sound and the alert-caller's voice said, "Sir, I can repeat the message!"

And then a different, gravelly voice said, "Give me that microphone, idiot!" Then came the sound of someone clearing their throat. "Attention! This is Commander Niverwaltt! Get your stinkin' lazy butts up and to the launch bay! When we say prepare to leave, it means get up and _move_!"

Nnohe chuckled and shook her head. Niverwaltt was quite a character.

Nnohe was the second of eight squadron commanders to arrive in the bay. None of the others were Human, and only one other was female.

And as soon as the other commanders were there, they followed procedure and boarded the center of Black Maw's fleet: the Lorinar Capital Battle Cruiser known as the _Annihilator_.

Thirty minutes later, after checking out all eleven of her subordinate squad-mates and making sure they were awake and prepped, Nnohe fastened herself to her ECHO—an acronym for Expanded Cargo Hold Operator—Starfighter's chair, running diagnostics on all of her systems. Everything checked out perfectly.

Nnohe glared out of her wide cockpit viewscreen at the other ninety-odd starfighters—ECHOs and others—docked in the bay as she said, "Corusca Leader/One, all systems go."

"Corusca Two, go."

"Corusca Three, all go."

The other squad-mates checked in similarly. Then came the call for the full squadron.

"All starfighter squadrons: check in."

"Massassi, go."

"Glitterstim, go."

"Corusca, go," Nnohe answered in turn.

"Savrip, go."

And Mynock, Keshel, Rancor and Dessiar squadrons all checked in perfectly too.

"Escorting ships: check in."

Nnohe barely listened as the four escort corvettes _Never Defeat_, _Luck's Beloved_, _Leaper_ and _Maw's Guide_ checked in and received acknowledgements and jump coordinates from the _Annihilator_.

Again, all ran perfectly smooth.

There was an acknowledgement that all was go for the fleet from the Battle Cruiser's bridge, and then the countdown until the fleet's jump began. "Ten minutes till jump."

Nnohe settled herself comfortably in her seat. The gravity compensators in the launch bay were not exactly top-notch. She formed a protective bubble around herself with the Force, to keep herself from bumping around too hard.

The display timer on Nnohe's control board ticked steadily downward.

"Five minutes until hyperspace entry. Two hours, fifteen minutes until re-emergence to realspace, Vyy System, Kwoq Cluster."

The timer continued downward.

_5… 4… 3… 2… 1…_

"Mark," Commander Niverwaltt's voice echoed through the _Annihilator_ as it jumped into hyperspace.

Nnohe was bumped around in her cockpit by gravitational forces as the ship's hyperdrive accelerated the huge mass into the awesome dimension known as hyperspace. She glanced as well as she could around her squadron's docked starfighters toward the wide transparisteel launch doors at the lines of hyperspace.

The compensators caught up with the ship and Nnohe released her Force-bubble. With a wide yawn, Nnohe snuggled further down into her seat and recalled the dream she'd been having before the wailing alarm awoke her.

But try as she might, she couldn't fully recall the Kurtzen's face, though she_ could_ totally recall his message.

He'd clearly said, "Help me! You're the only one who can."

Frustrated that she couldn't recall his face, Nnohe grumbled and searched for a way to see where else the dream was going. She knew there was more to the message than "Help me!" There had to be! Dreams did not come to the Jedi unless they held a message, and the message had to be more than what Nnohe had heard.

_Perhaps if I tried to slid into sleep again… Or maybe I should just put myself in a Jedi trance. That would probably do it._

So once again, she grunted and snuggled far into the chair, loosening the heavy restraints. She submerged herself in the Force and turned herself inward into the well-known trance…

Nnohe slid into the trance easily, finding herself in the dream-world within about thirty seconds of turning inward.

But this time she wasn't on Uumbian, not at all. She was instead in a large void, floating around aimlessly.

_Obviously, this isn't going to work!_ Nnohe thought as she began to pull herself out of the trance. _Or I could just time my sleep and wake just before we enter realspace…_

So she decided she'd do just that.

But then something appeared in the void…

Nnohe had to squint to see what it was, and still couldn't really see it…

And then realization struck her. It was the Kurtzen she'd seen in her dream!

Across the void, his voice echoed over and over again, "Master Henip, help me! Help me! Only you can! Help!"

And once again, Nnohe was abruptly awakened.

She grunted angrily as she sat up straighter in her starfighter's seat, flexing her taut muscles. Somehow, that short time she'd spent in the trance's dream added up to two hours in the real galaxy.

Commander Niverwaltt's voice echoed through the _Annihilator_ again. "Attention! Ten minutes till realspace! All fighters begin start-up procedures and prepare to disengage from docks as we leave hyperspace. Squadron commanders, you will receive your individual missions and agendas momentarily."

With yet another groan, Nnohe slid on her helmet and sealed it to her flightsuit's neck. Once in space's vacuum, the ECHOs didn't use much life support, only a bit of air cyclers and heat distributors, and the slightest puncture to its cockpit would deactivate those.

Nnohe flicked on system start-ups with both gloved hands, touching buttons on a 180-degree console. And as the engines started and the readouts welcomed her, she opened the shutters across the viewports, giving herself a 200-degree field of vision.

Off to her left, Nnohe saw her eleven subordinates starting up their own systems, some of them groggily, some of them with the utmost awareness.

Nnohe turned back to her displays as her squadron's instructions scrolled across. She read them silently, then opened her squadron's private channel.

"Look alive, Coruscas," she said in a gruff voice. "We've got front-line duty today. Looks like we'll be taking care of some planetary defenses first, then we'll be on particular pirating duties."

The timer on Nnohe's board declined steadily, counting down the minutes until the _Annihilator_ dropped out of hyperspace back into realspace and the starfighters spilled out of the bay into the space surrounding Uumbian.

Nnohe read onward as her engines whined to life and her displays came fully on-line.

"We've got first launch out of the bay," she announced to the squad. "Double-flight beside the Mynocks. Pair off with the Corusca fighter next to you. Me and Two, Three and Four, all the way down to Eleven and Twelve. Got it?"

All eleven of them acknowledged.

Nnohe's timer hit zero and the commander's voice whispered, "Mark," in her helmet.

The entire launch bay, docks and all shuddered slightly as the _Annihilator_ emerged into realspace, to the probable surprise of Uumbian officials.

"Starfighters, you have your missions, now launch according to the order you have."

Nnohe settled her hands on the steering handles and touched the ECHO's docking cable releases with one finger. Throwing slight power to the engines, she slid out of the docking slot with Corusca Two's angular shape right beside her.

Wiping the dream and the Kurtzen's message from her mind, Nnohe steered her fighter out of the launch bay and into open space.


End file.
